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July 15th, 2009, 19:01 GMT · By

Teen Threatens to Hijack Plane in WoW, FBI Arrests Him

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The game was used by a clumsy teen
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World of Warcraft is the most popular MMORPG in the world, scoring almost 11,5 million paying subscribers every month. Out of all these people, you can definitely imagine that some of them aren't really the brightest tools in the box.

Such is the case with an 18-year-old boy from Johnson County, Indiana, who decided to see just how serious Blizzard was about the discussions in World of Warcraft, and decided to repeat a threat that he “was going to board a plane at 7:30 to Chicago and that he was going to try and kill as many Americans as possible.”

Needless to say, the teen was reported by a facilitator from an online gaming center and the authorities were called in. When confronted with the fact that the FBI seized his computer and were looking seriously into the case, the teen said that his account had been hacked and that he hadn't said any of those things.

The truth surfaced though, and he finally admitted that he was kidding around and wanted to see just how everyone around him would react to such threats. Quite badly it seems, as charges might be filed with the US Attorney's office, but they haven't been made just yet. It definitely seems that the teen has learned his lesson and if he plays WoW in the future he won't make any other wild threats to the homeland security of his own country.

Sadly there are certainly a lot of other people who won't learn anything from this story and will continue to believe that online games, be it World of Warcraft or not, are like a Wild West-like place where everyone can say and threaten whoever they want. Until the next guy or gal reaches the news, be careful about your bragging online.

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READER COMMENTS:


Comment #1 by: Gab on 18 Jul 2009, 22:55 UTC reply to this comment

The USA governement has become definitely paranoid and its an intrusion in privacy to watch the conversations in a,- common -, online game. I repeat, a game, where U should be in right to say anything, since its a game. Its completely crazy, if this is really true. Reminds me of big brother. Can I get angry and say insults now while playing WOW ? or should I be afraid of FBI coming to my house and taking me to court. Calm down. This is more than paranoia. Wonder if it would be the same in Europe(wow Europe), surely not.

Comment #1.1 by: Josh on 22 Jul 2009, 17:59 GMT

It's one thing to get angry and have normal (at least normal for gamers) trash talk conversations. It's different however when you spam that you are going to commit a serious crime. If that kid wasn't joking and whispered to a friend that he was really going to board that plain and follow through with his actions then the outcome is as clear as day- plenty of dead American civilians. It's not paranoia because there actually have been cases of people making threats while playing online video games and following through. It is better to be safe than sorry and as we've seen the US government fail in the past, it is nice to see that they are actually doing something to keep this country safe. There are a lot of people who do not like America, and a lot of people willing to take action. If you tell someone you are going to kill them online, it will probably be brushed off. Keep in mind that it was reported to authorities. The authorities were not watching the game themselves.

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